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IoT Boards for Building Projects

The internet of things has a huge scope in the future. It provides various advantages in every sector and industry. There are plenty of different IoT boards available in the market. IoT boards are basic hardware and software components on which IoT applications can run and function.

Classification of IoT boards

There are a huge variety of IoT boards based on the purposes. IoT boards are basically categorised into their kinds:

  • Microcontroller Boards
  • Single Board Computer
  • System on chip boards

Microcontroller boards

Microcontrollers are used in automated control in products and devices. It is a small board that sits upon a small computer that is made of metal oxide semiconductor chips. Microcontrollers are small computers and are essentially made of CPUs, memory, I/O hardware and other programming peripherals.

1. Arduino Uno Rev

Arduino is a type of microcontroller that is open-source. It is an easy to use board and the best board to get started with microcontrollers, electronics or coding. Uno is robust, meaning it can cope easily with errors and defects.
Arduino is a ATmega328p micro chip with 14 input/output pins out of which 6 are PWM outputs, 6 analog inputs, a power jack, USB connection, 16Mhz ceramic resonator and ICSP header in addition to a reset button.

Advantages:

  • Arduino is very easy to construct and implement
  • It is less expensive
  • Arduino Uno has a large collection of libraries
  • Arduino Uno has a huge community of users and it is easy to gain access to resources.

Disadvantages:

  • The performance speed is relatively slow compared to other boards in the market
  • A large PCB is required to cover the large structure of Arduino.

2. ESP8266

ESP8266 is a small IoT board that can be used for basic projects such as WiFi, home automation, Robo, Car and so on. It can be accessed via the internet. It comes with features such as memory storage and number pins.

Advantages :

  • It is of less cost compared to other boards in the market.
  • It is readily available in the market.

Disadvantages:

  • The documentation is in Mandarin language which makes it difficult to access the resources.

Single Board computers

A single-board computer is a complete computer made on a single board with features such as microprocessors, memory control and input-output features. It contains all the essential features of a fully functional computer. They are used for user-embedded controllers.

1. BeagleBoard

Beagleboards are an open source SBC. They make it an ideal board for beginners and software professionals to get hands-on experience with SBCs. It is a Linux computer that offers a huge scope for expansion. Beagleboards allow quick development in production.

Advantages:

  • Learn a number of programming languages online
  • Does not limit the users imagination
  • Eight analog inputs

Disadvantages:

  • It does not contain audio and video compatibility

2. Raspberry Pi3

Raspberry Pi3 boards have become highly common, one can find these boards in any regular household. It is a cheap and common computing device that can be found easily in the market. Raspberry Pi was found to help students learn programming from scratch. It was developed by the Raspberry Pi foundation. Raspberry supports a quad-core-64-bit ARM v8 processor and operates at 1.2 Ghz. It also consists of 4 USB ports, on-board WiFi, GPIOs and so on.

Advantages:

  • Pocket friendly prices and available easily in the market
  • Contains plenty of input output pins

Disadvantages:

  • RaspberryPi is not as quick in performance in terms of CPU processing speed. It contains less memory storfe compared to Windows or Mac.

System on ChipBoards

1. Tessel 2

Tessel 2 is an open source board that operates on Javascript. It creates scripts using Node js. It is a platform for the internet of things and to design, implement, create and achieve hardware functionality. Tessel has a group of command line interfaces that allow you to get started with Tessel 2. You must first install Tessel tools and make use of the command line to execute the script code.

Advantages:

  • Due to Javascript, Tessel makes a good choice.
  • Requires less maintenance and has worthy speed.

Disadvantages:

  • The cost is high compared to its competitors in the market and provides less functionality compared to its other peers.

2. Particle Photon

Particle photons are small IoT boards which contain WiFi modules. It is a ready made board for IoT. In order to make the designing process quicker it includes a range of expansion kits.

Advantages:

  • Particle photons are beneficial for rapid prototyping in IoT. It supports code migration and remote programming. It is easy to charge the photon via smartphone chargers.

Disadvantages:

  • The board does not have many online resources as compared to Arduino
  • In order to flash code, user connected the photon to the Wifi and the cloud

3. Intel Edison Board

The Intel Edison Board is a small computer board that allows you to build projects and applications based on IoT. Edison supports platforms such as Arduino and Eclipse. It comprises the Intel Atom Processor with a dual core CPU, 500 Mhz and a microcontroller of 100 Mhz.

Advantages:

  • Small but highly capable board.
  • Completely supports Microsoft and is widely used in the industry.

Disadvantages:

  • Limits the user’s imagination due to limited potential.
  • Expensive compared to other boards in the market.

Popular IoT boards in the market

There are plenty of IoT boards available in the market and based on the size of the project, duration and budget one can easily buy a board that fits their needs. Below are some of the most popular IoT boards available in the market.

1. Sense HAT 8×8 RGB LED matrix

The Sense Hat from the creators of Raspberry Pi aids your project with sensing features. Sensors can sense the temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure and so on. The Sense Hat contains an 8X8, 16 bit LED display to show the output obtained by sensing the surrounding environment. The python libraries offer easy access to the board to create projects easily.

2. Bluetooth Module HC-05

Bluetooth Module HC-05 is a serial port protocol model that is simple to set up and use. It is mainly designed for setting up wireless serial connection. It communicates through serial communication which makes it easier to interact with controllers or personal computers. The module offers switching context between master and slave modes.

3. Omega 2

The Onions Omega 2 is an IOT development board which is based on Linux design systems and it is also WiFI based. It offers connection computing functions for various IoT applications. To get started we require a 3.3V power source and a Linux operating system to get your business started and running.

It has Linux in-built in the board and in addition to WiFi, it also provides FCC and CE certifications.

4. Banana Pi

The banana pi is a single board computer specifically used for various IOT applications. The banana Pi has an ethernet connector in addition to two USB ports. It also contains an InfraRed receiver which also allows you to work with IR remotely. We have the regular audio jack and microphone.

The banana pi is a relatively powerful board. It shows resemblance to the Raspberry pi; it differs when it comes to input output functions and performance. The Banana Pi is relatively new in the market but with its support for Linux and Android is set to dominate the market.

Summary

In this article, we looked at what IoT boards are, the various IoT boards, their advantages and disadvantages. We looked at the most popular boards such as Raspberry Pi and Beaglebone.